Money in Toronto
March 5, 2010 2:32 PM Subscribe
TorontoFilter: I may be living in Toronto for just a short period for work and need some banking help.
I currently live in New York and have a checking account at Bank of America, but while I'm living up in Toronto I need to find a way to deposit paychecks. I can only find what looks like an investment firm of Bank of America there. Am I wrong about that? Do I need to open an account with another bank that exists in both places? This shouldn't be so complicated, right?
PS - bonus points for ways for a single woman in her 30s to entertain herself while in Toronto.
I currently live in New York and have a checking account at Bank of America, but while I'm living up in Toronto I need to find a way to deposit paychecks. I can only find what looks like an investment firm of Bank of America there. Am I wrong about that? Do I need to open an account with another bank that exists in both places? This shouldn't be so complicated, right?
PS - bonus points for ways for a single woman in her 30s to entertain herself while in Toronto.
Might be easiest to just open a Canadian bank account. There should be lots of ways to transfer money between that and your existing US account - ex. a bank draft or wire transfer which your Canadian bank would be able to provide. If you decide to open an account with a Canadian bank, I recommend TD Canada Trust, they've always treated me well and have plenty of locations in Toronto.
posted by Diplodocus at 2:39 PM on March 5, 2010
posted by Diplodocus at 2:39 PM on March 5, 2010
Just as an FYI: Bank of America account holders can withdraw CDN$ from Scotiabank ABMs with no added service charge.
posted by Gridlock Joe at 2:44 PM on March 5, 2010
posted by Gridlock Joe at 2:44 PM on March 5, 2010
If your US bank doesn't do deposits by mail, maybe you could mail the cheques to a trusted family member or friend and have them deposit on your behalf? Usually banks don't have a problem with a third-party depositing cheques into your account, but probably best to double check first.
Some of the big Canadian banks also have banks in the US which make it easy to move money back and forth. RBC is one of them. However, the US branches tend to be regional (RBC for example is just in the southeast) so it may not actually be any more convenient for you.
posted by Emanuel at 2:53 PM on March 5, 2010
Some of the big Canadian banks also have banks in the US which make it easy to move money back and forth. RBC is one of them. However, the US branches tend to be regional (RBC for example is just in the southeast) so it may not actually be any more convenient for you.
posted by Emanuel at 2:53 PM on March 5, 2010
Just to back up my answer of opening up a Canadian account for use when you're in Canada, this will also give you some benefits such as being easy to withdraw money in Canada, easily writing Canadian cheques, use of a Canadian debit card and in-person access to a bank while you're there. If you just deposit the cheques to a US account like people are suggesting, then you won't have any money in a Canadian currency ready for easy access while you live there.
posted by Diplodocus at 3:28 PM on March 5, 2010
posted by Diplodocus at 3:28 PM on March 5, 2010
Response by poster: hey all - thanks for the help. Since I'll only be up there for a month and a half, I'll look into doing deposits via my friends back in New York and just take out money at the Scotiabank.
You'd think for being so close, Canada and the US would have mutual banks and phone companies.
posted by Unred at 3:38 PM on March 5, 2010
You'd think for being so close, Canada and the US would have mutual banks and phone companies.
posted by Unred at 3:38 PM on March 5, 2010
It may be close but it's still a separate country. Do you expect to find B of A in Mexico?
posted by GuyZero at 3:59 PM on March 5, 2010
posted by GuyZero at 3:59 PM on March 5, 2010
US citizen in Toronto here. There are no simple ways to do this. No banks maintain international branches (as far as I have found in Canada, Brazil and Portugal).
Are your paychecks in USD or CAD? Many banks here have USD accounts which are free as long as you maintain a large enough primary account balance (otherwise there are "transaction fees", which is actually common for most Canadian bank accounts).
I have found that the easiest thing for me is to keep a CAD and a USD bank account (TD Canada) and mail USD money orders to my US bank account when it is necessary (money orders are free with a large enough balance, CAD to USD conversion rate also depends on the balance you keep). It's slow, but then you don't have to pay a wire transfer fee.
posted by pjenks at 4:43 PM on March 5, 2010
Are your paychecks in USD or CAD? Many banks here have USD accounts which are free as long as you maintain a large enough primary account balance (otherwise there are "transaction fees", which is actually common for most Canadian bank accounts).
I have found that the easiest thing for me is to keep a CAD and a USD bank account (TD Canada) and mail USD money orders to my US bank account when it is necessary (money orders are free with a large enough balance, CAD to USD conversion rate also depends on the balance you keep). It's slow, but then you don't have to pay a wire transfer fee.
posted by pjenks at 4:43 PM on March 5, 2010
You might want to look into TD bank. They're Toronto-based, and they have branches in New York.
posted by foxjacket at 7:01 PM on March 5, 2010
posted by foxjacket at 7:01 PM on March 5, 2010
Just a month and a half? Why not hang onto the cheques and deposit them when you get home?
But, yeah, the "TD" in TD Bank stands for Toronto Dominion, which is why seeing the Boston Bruins on TV playing home games at TD Garden makes me giggle.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:38 PM on March 5, 2010
But, yeah, the "TD" in TD Bank stands for Toronto Dominion, which is why seeing the Boston Bruins on TV playing home games at TD Garden makes me giggle.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:38 PM on March 5, 2010
TD Bank has branches in New York but you can't use your TD Bank in Canada or vice versa unfortunately. I called and they said they were not yet fully merged.
I'm from Canada and had the reverse problem in New York - I had to eventually open a bank account the US - painfully.
posted by simpleton at 7:50 PM on March 5, 2010
I'm from Canada and had the reverse problem in New York - I had to eventually open a bank account the US - painfully.
posted by simpleton at 7:50 PM on March 5, 2010
Multi-international banker here (goodness that sounds important). Anyway, we've moved around a lot. Banks in several countries, US included. I've always just mailed deposits in a specific currency to the address provided by my bank (for example, the national bank set up in Chicago has mail deposits in Nevada – although you can always mail a check to your branch).
Just get the address from your bank and mail the check with your account number on the back. Easy Peasy.
posted by qwip at 3:56 AM on March 6, 2010
Just get the address from your bank and mail the check with your account number on the back. Easy Peasy.
posted by qwip at 3:56 AM on March 6, 2010
Couldn't you just set up an account with HSBC?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:53 AM on March 6, 2010
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:53 AM on March 6, 2010
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posted by GuyZero at 2:35 PM on March 5, 2010